Brie and Fig Grilled Cheese: You Can Make It, Too!

I met a friend for a birthday lunch at food. here in Summit. I have been driving by this modern and minimalist looking eatery and wondering what the food tastes like for a while now.

I finally made it to the open, airy space. It reminded me of a café at MOMA in New York City. While I waited for my friend, I looked through the lunch menu. It consisted of salads, soup and sandwiches. Somehow the Brie and fig grilled cheese served with sweet potato fries stood out to me. I love any mixture of sweet and savory and this seemed to fit the category really well.
Since my friend had eaten here before, she suggested the same sandwich. Well, my decision was made.

The sandwich came with a heap of sweet potato fries. I love fries, but try not to eat them too often. Since I have read about the virtues of sweet potatoes, I jump at any chance I get to eat them. The fries were delicious and I ate them all!

The sandwich was crispy from the outside and gooey on the inside. The Brie and fig combination was delicious. I enjoyed it and started thinking how I would replicate it and what, if anything, I would change about it.

Replicating recipes is a lot of fun for me. Since I love to cook and come up with a lot of recipes myself, I can't help but tweak things to my taste.

I felt I wanted to lighten the sandwich up a bit. I found myself extremely full for almost the entire day after eating the sandwich and fries- okay, I know I shouldn't have finished the fries…

I went shopping for the ingredients and found whole-wheat sour dough bread. The original recipe used a delicious Balthazar sliced bread. I wanted go the healthy route and picked the whole-wheat bread. I bought the Brie and started looking for a fig preserve. I felt the original sandwich was a bit too sweet for me- so I went with a fig compote with caramelized shallots. I liked the idea of having a savory component to the sweet preserve. My other thought was to introduce some kind of a green leaf to the sandwich. I thought of arugula to cut into the richness a bit. I used a combination of butter and olive oil for cooking to avoid making the sandwich too heavy.

All my fries are oven roasted. I cut the sweet potatoes into wedges and doused them with garlic powder, salt and- are you ready- smoked paprika. I love the smoky and garlicky flavor on the sweet fries. The olive oil and a very hot oven made the fries crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Overall, the sandwich was delicious and tweaked exactly to my taste. It wasn't exactly the same but it still had the same essence. The outside was crunchy and the inside was gooey. I loved the Brie, fig compote and arugula together.

I was very happy with the result. Try this sandwich out and tell me what you think.


Brie and Fig Grilled Cheese Served with Sweet Potato Fries


2 slices whole-wheat sour dough bread
2 teaspoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup sliced brie cheese

1/4 cup fig preserve or compote

1/2 cup arugula

Heat a medium non-stick frying pan. Carefully spread the soft butter on one side of both the slices. Drizzle the olive oil as well and place the bread, butter side down on the pan. Cook on medium heat. Spread the preserve on both slices. Add the brie on one slice. Cook for 4 to 6 minutes on medium heat. Add the arugula on the other slice. Carefully bring the slices together, placing the cheese side on top of the arugula side. Cook on both side for another minute making sure both sides are golden brown and crispy. Cut in half before serving.

Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick fries
2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the fries on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet. Drizzle the olive oil, salt, garlic powder and paprika. Mix well with your fingers and bake for about 45 minutes or till the fries are soft on the inside and crunchy and golden brown on the outside.